Environmentalists are trying to parlay the box-office success of the "The Perfect Storm," a movie that follows the ill-fated voyage of a commercial fishing boat, into increased awareness of the depleted swordfish population in the Atlantic. SeaWeb, a conservation group running a public education campaign centered on the film, says too many swordfish are being caught before they have a chance to reproduce. Enviros are anxiously awaiting an Aug. 1 ruling by the National Marine Fisheries Service that may close nearly 200,000 square miles in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico to "pelagic longline" fishing, a controversial method believed …

Thousands of Californians are embracing a new state program that gives residents $1,000 to junk cars and trucks that fail to meet emission standards. The program, launched July 7, aims to take 50,000 polluting clunkers off the roads over the next four years. Residents can alternatively get up to $500 to make repairs that will help their vehicles pass smog checks. The state is spending $2.7 million on radio and TV ads this summer to advertise the program, and the publicity drive is working. Between 550 and 1,000 Californians have been calling the government each day for program information and …

High prices for cashmere made from the wool of goats is leading in part to overgrazing of the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. In the last decade, the number of livestock in Mongolia jumped more than 30 percent, and the number of herders rose by 300 percent, to about 440,000. Many of the newcomers to the field have no experience and leave their herds too long in one place, increasing the stress on pastures.

Travelers to some U.S. cities can now rent eco-friendly cars. EV Rental Cars opened its first site at the Los Angeles airport in December 1998 and has since expanded to several other California airports. The company recently struck a long-term deal with Budget Rent-a-Car and has plans to open sites this year in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C. Its fleets include natural gas, electric, and gas-electric hybrid cars made by Honda, Toyota, and others.

Days after the Clinton-Gore administration gave its endorsement last year to a controversial shopping complex to be built in a sensitive wetlands area in New Jersey, the development company's executives and their relatives donated at least $31,000 to Al Gore's presidential campaign. Enviros have long opposed the mall because it would require filling more than 90 acres of marshland habitat for rare birds and other wildlife. A Gore spokesperson denies any connection between the endorsement and the campaign donations. Meanwhile, Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader yesterday criticized Gore for being weak on auto fuel efficiency standards and George W. …

Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson (R) and a number of Republican state lawmakers asked a federal judge yesterday to suspend the EPA clean air regulations that require the use of smog-reducing reformulated gasoline in southern Wisconsin. They claim that the regulations are a big cause of high gas prices in the state, while the federal government argues that its regulations have only raised gas prices by a few cents a gallon and that the oil industry is to blame for big price jumps in the Midwest. The case was filed after the EPA rejected several requests that it waive the reformulated-gas …

Poor citizens of Thailand have begun teaming up with non-governmental organizations and academics to protest environmentally destructive development projects being undertaken without their input. Over the past year and a half, thousands of people have demonstrated in the village of Pak Moon against a hydroelectric dam, funded in part by the World Bank, which is blocking the migration of fish that locals depend on. Last month, protestors halted operations at the dam's hydroelectric plant and got the authorities to agree to open the dam's floodgates for four months of the year to allow fish migration. "Poor people have been losers …

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has shelved plans to remove the American bald eagle from the endangered species list in time for the Fourth of July. On July 2, 1999, President Clinton announced that the eagle had made a strong recovery and was expected to be removed from the list by July 2000. But a USFWS spokesperson said yesterday that the removal won't happen next month. Two hundred years ago, there were as many as 500,000 bald eagles in North America, but by 1963 there were fewer than 500 breeding pairs in the Lower 48 states as a result …

A high-profile emergency spending package that passed the House last night contains a rider that would block the U.S. EPA from implementing major new rules meant to clean up the nation's waterways. Under the rules, which the agency intends to finalize this summer, states would be required to determine the total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) of pollution that bodies of water can handle and make plans to decrease pollution accordingly, a shift from the current system under which individual polluting sources such as factories are regulated closely but the overall health of a body of water is sometimes overlooked. The …

Al Gore continued laying out his energy and environment plan yesterday, proposing $25 billion in subsidies over 10 years for eco-friendly mass transit. But he affirmed the right of all Americans to drive their cars anywhere they want, anytime they want. "I reject the idea that in order to have a clean environment and reduce our dependence on foreign oil, we all have to put on hair shirts and turn off the air-conditioners and swelter inside and feel good that we're doing our duty for the environment," Gore said. Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader mocked Gore's energy proposals yesterday, …